


Just a Moment More

by kirani



Series: Gansey Week 2019 [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Confessions, Insomnia, M/M, Nightmares, One Shot, Roommates, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-13 00:29:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20165158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani
Summary: Gansey has been an insomniac for years, but now that he had a roommate he was worried about keeping him up. But Adam Parrish offers a different solution.~Written forGansey WeekDay 2:Sleep/Insomnia/I feel peace at night





	Just a Moment More

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to Em for the beta!

Gansey couldn’t sleep.

This was nothing new, of course. He had been an insomniac for most of his life. His parents told him that he had slept well as a young child but sometime in his adolescence, he stopped being able to fall so easily into unconsciousness. 

Instead, he had begun to spend the time reading, researching, and thinking. 

And now that he had a roommate: worrying. 

Adam Parrish seemed to be able to sleep through anything. He was taking a heavy course load, working at the campus library, and seemed to be studying every moment he was home. They had been roommates for three weeks and, while Adam knew his roommate sometimes had insomnia, he hadn’t seemed to grasp the extent of it just yet. 

This night, however, he was still awake when Adam’s alarm went off, paging through a book at his desk. 

“Gansey?” 

He looked up at his roommate as he swung his legs down from the lofted bed. 

“Why’re you up so early?” Adam drawled. Gansey had noticed him softening his Virginia accent during the day but in the early morning, it was strong. 

“Couldn’t sleep.” Gansey shrugged, nudging his glasses back up his nose. 

“You didn’t sleep at all?” Adam’s eyebrows rose into his messy bangs. 

Gansey shook his head. 

“Do you need to be anywhere? Or can you get some sleep now?”

“If I couldn’t sleep all night, why would I be able to now?” Gansey smiled grimly. 

“Change of location?”

“What?” 

Adam’s cheeks pinkened under his freckles. “You can sleep in my bed instead. A change of location helps, I hear.”

Gansey huffed a small laugh. “How would you know? You can sleep through anything.”

Adam shrugged. “Just an offer. I don’t mind.”

Gansey watched him as he gathered his things for a shower and padded out of the room. He looked up at the rumpled blankets of Adam’s bed. It did look comfortable. 

He was still staring at it when Adam came back from his shower, and he quickly pulled his gaze back to his book. 

“Gansey,” Adam said to his right. “Just go sleep.”

Gansey hummed and shrugged, closing his book. He climbed up onto the bed and laid his head down on Adam’s pillow. 

_ Oh,  _ he thought.  _ It smells like him. _

And... of course it did. It was Adam’s bed. But Gansey hadn’t realized until that moment that he even knew what Adam smelled like. 

“Sleep well, Gansey,” Adam whispered, shutting off the light and closing the door. 

He woke to his alarm two hours later feeling unusually rested. That was odd. Maybe Adam had been right about a change of location. He put it from his mind and got ready for class. 

When he saw Adam that evening, he thanked him. 

“It helped?”

“Yeah. Don’t understand it, but it did help.”

“Good.” Adam smiled at him. Gansey smiled back and ignored the butterflies in his stomach.

~~~

The next time Adam offered his bed was the middle of the afternoon. They had been roommates for two months at that point and, like many of their friends, did a lot together. Adam had collapsed onto his bed after an exam and when Gansey went to do the same, found he had dumped laundry on it. He groaned. 

Adam looked up at him. 

“C’mere.” He patted the mattress. 

“What?” Gansey asked, eloquently. 

“Come on, you’re exhausted, I know you barely slept. Come nap with me.”

Gansey stared at him another moment. Sleeping in Adam’s bed while he was at class was a totally different thing than actually sharing a twin bed with him. 

“I probably won’t even be able to sleep,” he countered. “I don’t want to keep you up.”

“Gansey,” Adam said, eyebrow raised. 

Finally, Gansey gave in, kicking his shoes off and climbing up onto the bed with Adam. 

“Just try to relax,” Adam said softly, plumping up his pillow so they could share it. Gansey leaned back into it and was once again surrounded by the scent of Adam. Just as it had before, it lulled him to sleep, all the faster because of the warmth of Adam beside him. 

Twin beds were not made for two eighteen-year-old boys to share, though, and when he woke up from his nap, he was horrified to find that he had cuddled up around Adam in the small space. 

He listened for a moment, trying to figure out if Adam was still asleep. His breathing seemed even and Gansey decided to try to remove himself before Adam awoke. But when he pulled his arm back, Adam held on. 

Well, that was something. 

Gansey pulled his arm again, loosening Adam’s grip, and extricated himself. 

“Gans,” Adam mumbled. “Where’re you—?” 

Gansey shut his eyes against the sudden rush of  _ want _ coursing through his body. This little crush he’d developed on his roommate was proving less and less convenient. He slipped out of the bed and out of their room, suddenly desperate to put some space between them. He had to get control of this. 

Adam found him later in the common area, half-heartedly reading a book. 

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Gansey shrugged. “Did for a bit.”

“Okay.” Adam sat beside him on the sofa. “You alright?”

He nodded, not meeting Adam’s eye.

“Gansey?” The worry in Adam’s voice finally got him to look at his roommate and friend. 

“I’m fine, really. I’m just an insomniac.”

“I know. I just worry about you.”

Gansey shrugged again, trying to be nonchalant and feeling anything but. 

“You can talk to me, you know,” Adam tried once more. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

Gansey looked at him carefully. What secrets did he think Gansey was keeping?

“No secrets, just insomnia. You sleep through anything, I know, but I just can’t sometimes.”

Adam laughed humorlessly. “I can’t sleep through anything.”

“What?” Gansey had only lived with Adam for two months, sure, but he’d seen the boy sleep through storms, Gansey’s light, dorm hall shenanigans and countless other middle of the night disturbances. 

Now it was Adam’s turn to shrug. “I can sleep here because I feel safe here. I haven’t always felt safe.”

Gansey felt like a tool. “I’m so sorry, Adam, I didn’t mean—” He wasn’t sure what he didn’t mean, but Adam cut him off with a shake of the head. 

“It’s alright, Gansey. I don’t exactly share details about my home life, do I?”

Gansey thought for a moment and realized he hadn’t met Adam’s parents on move-in day, had never heard Adam mention them or call them. He just shook his head. 

“Come on, let’s go put away your laundry and then we can get dinner?” Adam offered, standing and offering Gansey his hand. Gansey clasped it and hauled himself up, tucking his book under his arm. 

~~~

The third time Gansey found himself in Adam’s bed, it wasn’t due to insomnia at all. He was actually sleeping at a reasonable hour when he was shaken awake by a ragged cry from the bed across the room. He sprang from his bed and over to Adam’s, resting a hand on the other boy’s back. 

“Adam?”

Adam’s eyes flew open and he reeled back from Gansey’s touch. 

Gansey pulled his hand up, keeping both visible. “It’s just me,” he said quietly. “It’s alright. You’re safe.”

“Gansey,” Adam breathed, relaxing into the pillow again. “Sorry.”

“Bad dream?”

Adam nodded. 

“Can I help?”

Adam looked at him in the dark for a long moment, then rolled to the side and lifted his blanket in invitation. Gansey felt his eyes go wide. 

This was okay. This was fine. His friend needed comforting and Gansey could provide that. It was just a friendly cuddle. Nothing to overthink. 

He climbed up the ladder and into the bed with Adam, tucking his body around him and focusing on letting Adam feel safe in his arms. Eventually, his breathing evened out and the tension faded from his frame as Adam slipped back into sleep. 

Gansey lay awake for a long time, thinking about Adam and how to make sure he was always safe. 

When he awoke, having fallen back asleep at some point, Adam was still tucked into his arms but he wasn’t asleep. He was looking up at Gansey.

“Morning,” Gansey mumbled. 

“I’m sorry,” Adam said, his voice barely more than a whisper. 

Gansey was suddenly wide awake. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Adam said again. “I shouldn’t have asked that of you, it’s too much, I’m —” 

“Adam,” Gansey cut him off. “It’s alright.”

Adam stared at him for a moment, then tucked his face into Gansey’s chest. Gansey wrapped his arms tighter around Adam’s back and held him as he shook. He murmured soft words of reassurance and held his friend tightly. 

“You must think I’m a mess,” Adam said into Gansey’s shirt. 

“I think you’re wonderful,” Gansey said truthfully, feeling his cheeks heat with the confession. He pressed on. “I think you’re brave and strong and sincere and you work so damn hard and I am honored to be the one who gets to hold you when it gets to be too much.”

Adam lifted his head from Gansey’s chest. “Really?”

Gansey wiped a tear away from Adam’s cheek. “Really, Adam.”

Adam surged into him in the next moment, lips colliding with Gansey’s, and he froze, unsure what was happening. Adam pulled back. 

“Oh God, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, I—”

Gansey kissed him back, silencing his apologies. 

“Adam,” he mumbled between kisses. 

“Gansey,” Adam murmured back.

They broke apart and Gansey smiled at Adam, getting a blinding grin in return. “Yeah?” he asked. 

“Yes,” Adam breathed. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr at [blueseyforthesoul](https://blueseyforthesoul.tumblr.com/)


End file.
